If an industry professional is interested in an unrepped script, how do they get their hands on it? Is is hosted on your site for them?

For now, we're not allowing anyone to download any PDFs (unrepped or repped). We've made it easy for our subscribers to contact the agents/managers behind the projects or, if it's unrepped, to contact the writer directly. We have a form that allows them to be emailed and also to make phone numbers available.

That said, we're planning to make changes to this approach in our next round of development of the site. We'd love input from you and the rest of the DDP community: What do you think the best approach is, from the writers perspective?

While downloading scripts is very convenient for industry professionals, personally I like someone contacting me. That way I can track who it is who wants to read the script. Of course I can't stop someone from emailing the script to someone else. I guess you could have a script download feature, but also let the writer know who downloaded the script via an email message. It would allow for followup. On the B.L., I have no idea who is reading my script.

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Originally Posted by jscoggins

What if there are more than ten top scripts that have a score above 60? Number 11 and others are not highlighted. Will they ever be found or are the top ten lists I see on your website expanded for industry professionals to include all scripts within acceptable range?

The Top 10 lists are just teasers on the public-facing website (in front of the paywall). Once our subscribers log in, they can see ALL of the unrepped scripts we've added to the database. (That's true for the rest of the coverage library as well -- everything we have is available behind the paywall, not just top 10 lists. That's probably obvious...) All unrepped scripts show up alongside the rest of the projects in the database when subscribers do keyword, genre, title and author searches, too.

I assume when you say ALL, you mean only ones worthy of inclusion (60+)? It's good you list all scripts. Right now, on the B.L. you only get the top 15, and I'm sure people worthy of being seen are not.

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Originally Posted by jscoggins

After submitting a script for coverage, does the writer have access to anything else?

No. Access to the coverage library is limited to industry pros who are actively involved in discovering and acquiring material (on either side of the table): Agents, managers, directors, producers, executives, financiers and their assistants.

Makes sense, same as on the B.L.

I particularly like seeing that writers don't have to pay a monthly fee. Do you foresee that policy changing?

Thanks for your answers and your time.

__________________
All the best,
Lee
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I'm not just a screenwriter...
I also write and illustrate picture books!

Thanks for the excellent feedback, Lee. Getting the balance right between the needs of our writer clients and our subscribers is tricky, but we'll learn what works as we go and keep striving to improve.

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I assume when you say ALL, you mean only ones worthy of inclusion (60+)?

Right.

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I particularly like seeing that writers don't have to pay a monthly fee. Do you foresee that policy changing?

Absolutely not. Theoretically we might consider expanding our definition of "industry pro" to include writers and other creatives and allow them to access the coverage library, but that's not currently on the table. And either way I can't see us ever charging writers to list their projects on Spec Scout. There are other excellent sites that do that, and I'm not judging them at all. But the purpose of our coverage library precludes that.

Indefinitely. Generally speaking, we'd like Spec Scout's coverage library to function as a "long tail" discovery mechanism for our subscribers. Buyers' mandates change from time to time, and something that wasn't right for a given company a year ago might be perfect today, so why be limited just to material that's on the market right this minute?

Aside from user-submitted scripts, you're also covering and rating specs by professionals?

This is something that I don't like, especially specs that are still on the market but ranked low by this top secret "formulaic system". Unsure how many others feel the same way, or if professional writers just "don't care" that someone's assigning ratings to their material.

Right. In fact the vast majority of the projects on Spec Scout fall in that category (i.e., scripts that went out to buyers from agents and managers).

I dont recommend that bud. Not to answer that in a public way since I could just email you, but it's going to be a headache for you... unless you do it with the writers and reps approval. I know if any of my clients scripts were covered (good or bad), I'd have you take it down.